It is a matter of alarm that two Jamuna Television journalists were beaten up by lawyers in Chittagong while the journalists were on their way to Chittagong Court to collect news. Unfortunately, when one looks at the trend of stifling the practice of freedom of speech and strangling of journalistic voices for doing their jobs, it quickly becomes apparent that this is nothing new.
Over the years, journalistic freedom has diminished to the point where there have been repeated attacks on journalists with zero accountability. The fact that the recent attack has been carried out by lawyers -- people whose profession should ideally work as a stand-in for justice -- is the result of this culture of impunity. The authorities must take a stance, and the stance has to be decisive. If not, incidents like this will become more severe in the future, until the whole of the fourth estate collapses.
This trend of harassing journalists is also endemic of the bigger problem of the lack of freedom of speech. Things have gotten so bad that almost all discourse against the machinations of the state and those in power have become non-existent, nullifying the role of the citizens and public intellectuals to serve in the capacity of much needed checks and balances for the powers that be. This directly feeds in with the issue of impunity where certain powerful agents can get away with anything -- even something as heinous as beating people up.
The authorities cannot ignore their responsibilities of taking a decisive stance. The lawyers that have perpetrated this attack must be focused upon and they have to be made an example for the whole country. For a democracy to function properly, we must take care of our journalists and press freedom at large. Only then can we truly prosper.
